The Politics of Envy: Outlaw Emotions in Capitalist Societies

Alfred Archer; Alan Thomas; Bart Engelen

The Politics of Envy: Outlaw Emotions in Capitalist Societies

Alfred Archer^*
, Alan Thomas
, Bart Engelen

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Scientific › peer-review

Abstract

Envy is a vicious and shameful response to the good fortune of others, one that ruins friendships and plagues societies—or so the common thinking goes, shaped by millennia of religious and cultural condemnation. Envy’s bad reputation is not completely unwarranted; envy can indeed motivate malicious and counterproductive behavior and may strain or even tear apart relations between people. However, that is not always the case. Investigating the complex nature of this emotion reveals that it plays important functions in social hierarchies and it can motivate one to self-improve and even to achieve moral virtue.

Philosophers and psychologists in this volume explore envy’s characteristics in different cultures, spanning from small hunter-gatherer communities to large industrialized countries, to contexts as diverse as academia, marketing, artificial intelligence, and Buddhism. They explore envy’s role in both the personal and the political sphere, showing the many ways in which envy can either contribute or detract to our flourishing as individuals and as citizens of modern democracies.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	The Moral Psychology of Envy
Editors	Sara Protasi
Publisher	Rowman & Littlefield
Pages	181-197
ISBN (Electronic)	978-1-5381-6007-7
ISBN (Print)	978-1-5381-6006-0
Publication status	Published - 2022

Publication series

Name	Moral Psychology of the Emotions

Cite this

@inbook{034c20b13fa645489fff3a9d1b733d7c,

title = "The Politics of Envy: Outlaw Emotions in Capitalist Societies",

abstract = "Envy is a vicious and shameful response to the good fortune of others, one that ruins friendships and plagues societies—or so the common thinking goes, shaped by millennia of religious and cultural condemnation. Envy{\textquoteright}s bad reputation is not completely unwarranted; envy can indeed motivate malicious and counterproductive behavior and may strain or even tear apart relations between people. However, that is not always the case. Investigating the complex nature of this emotion reveals that it plays important functions in social hierarchies and it can motivate one to self-improve and even to achieve moral virtue. Philosophers and psychologists in this volume explore envy{\textquoteright}s characteristics in different cultures, spanning from small hunter-gatherer communities to large industrialized countries, to contexts as diverse as academia, marketing, artificial intelligence, and Buddhism. They explore envy{\textquoteright}s role in both the personal and the political sphere, showing the many ways in which envy can either contribute or detract to our flourishing as individuals and as citizens of modern democracies.",

author = "Alfred Archer and Alan Thomas and Bart Engelen",

year = "2022",

language = "English",

isbn = "978-1-5381-6006-0",

series = "Moral Psychology of the Emotions",

publisher = "Rowman \& Littlefield",

pages = "181--197",

editor = "Sara Protasi",

booktitle = "The Moral Psychology of Envy",

}

TY - CHAP

T1 - The Politics of Envy

T2 - Outlaw Emotions in Capitalist Societies

AU - Archer, Alfred

AU - Thomas, Alan

AU - Engelen, Bart

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - Envy is a vicious and shameful response to the good fortune of others, one that ruins friendships and plagues societies—or so the common thinking goes, shaped by millennia of religious and cultural condemnation. Envy’s bad reputation is not completely unwarranted; envy can indeed motivate malicious and counterproductive behavior and may strain or even tear apart relations between people. However, that is not always the case. Investigating the complex nature of this emotion reveals that it plays important functions in social hierarchies and it can motivate one to self-improve and even to achieve moral virtue. Philosophers and psychologists in this volume explore envy’s characteristics in different cultures, spanning from small hunter-gatherer communities to large industrialized countries, to contexts as diverse as academia, marketing, artificial intelligence, and Buddhism. They explore envy’s role in both the personal and the political sphere, showing the many ways in which envy can either contribute or detract to our flourishing as individuals and as citizens of modern democracies.

AB - Envy is a vicious and shameful response to the good fortune of others, one that ruins friendships and plagues societies—or so the common thinking goes, shaped by millennia of religious and cultural condemnation. Envy’s bad reputation is not completely unwarranted; envy can indeed motivate malicious and counterproductive behavior and may strain or even tear apart relations between people. However, that is not always the case. Investigating the complex nature of this emotion reveals that it plays important functions in social hierarchies and it can motivate one to self-improve and even to achieve moral virtue. Philosophers and psychologists in this volume explore envy’s characteristics in different cultures, spanning from small hunter-gatherer communities to large industrialized countries, to contexts as diverse as academia, marketing, artificial intelligence, and Buddhism. They explore envy’s role in both the personal and the political sphere, showing the many ways in which envy can either contribute or detract to our flourishing as individuals and as citizens of modern democracies.

UR - https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538160060/The-Moral-Psychology-of-Envy#:~:text=Summary-,Envy%20is%20a%20vicious%20and%20shameful%20response%20to%20the%20good,of%20religious%20and%20cultural%20condemnation.

M3 - Chapter

SN - 978-1-5381-6006-0

T3 - Moral Psychology of the Emotions

SP - 181

EP - 197

BT - The Moral Psychology of Envy

A2 - Protasi, Sara

PB - Rowman & Littlefield

ER -

The Politics of Envy: Outlaw Emotions in Capitalist Societies

Abstract

Publication series

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this